Reforestation of Waste Lands. 



11 



presentative men to discuss the situa- 

 tion at the June meeting of the county 

 council at Cobourg. The meeting was 

 held in the Opera House, about seventy- 

 five representative men being present 

 from different parts of the counties. The 

 chair was occupied by Lt.-Col. John 

 Hughes, chairman of the finance com- 

 mittee. Warden A. A. Powers opened 

 the meeting with a brief description of a 

 drive he had taken through part of the 

 district a few days before with Mr. C. C. 

 Xixon, one of the editors of Farm and 

 Dairy, who also spoke later. Both these 

 gentlemen said it was scarcely possible 

 to exaggerate the evils of the present 

 condition of affairs. The few farmers 

 who were left were eking out an exist- 

 ence trying to grow rye, with some 

 buckwheat and potatoes. The poverty 

 of the land was being reflected in the 

 poverty and hopelessness of the in- 

 habitants. Blow sand was appearing 

 everywhere, roads and fences were being 

 covered up, great hollows were appear- 

 ing in the middle of once fertile fields 

 and farmers on adjoining lands were 

 endeavoring, in most cases ineft'ectively, 

 to stop the encroachments of the sand. 

 Great stumps and young timber were to 

 be seen ever\^^-here, showing the suit- 

 ability of the soil to grow trees, but it 

 was evident that as soon as trees got big 

 enough for fuel they were slaughtered. 



This, with pasturing and fires, pre- 

 vented the re-growth of the forest which 

 alone was the remedy for this state of 

 aft'airs. A good deal of the land was 

 abandoned and the rest of it, it was held, 

 could be purchased at from one to six 

 dollars per acre. 



Selected speakers from various dis- 

 tricts and representing different points 

 of view followed. All agreed as to the 

 urgency of the need for a remedy; the 

 only question which seemed to give 

 ground for discussion was whether the 

 work should be undertaken by the 

 municipality, the provincial government 

 or by both of them in co-operation. 



The speakers in this part of the meet- 

 ing included Mr. C. J. Thornton, M.P., 

 Durham, Mr. William Rickard, Ex- 

 M.P.P., Mr. Sam. Clarke, M.P.P. for 

 East Northumberland, Mr. J. J. Preston, 

 M.P.P. for East Durham, Mr. Sam. 

 Nesbitt, M.P.P. for West Northumber- 

 land, Mr. C. L. Owen, M.P. for East 

 Northumberland, and Mr. John Miller, 

 ex-warden of the counties. 



Among the points brought out by 

 these speakers were: that the govern- 

 ment should take means to induce 

 farmers to preserve and properly care 

 for their woodlots; that land unsuited 

 *to agriculture should be kept in timber; 

 that the timber taken off these lands if 

 standing to-day would be worth ten to 

 twenty times the present land value; 

 and that, since trees grew rapidly even 

 in apparently the most discouraging 

 situations,reforestation should be at once 

 encouraged; otherwise there would be 

 thousands of acres now covered with 

 vegetation which in a few years will be 

 blow sand. 



Prof. E. J. Zavitz, of the Ontario 

 Agricultural College, who is in charge of 

 the reforestation of the waste lands in 

 Norfolk county, told of the work going 

 on there. By the end of this year the 

 department expects to own one thou- 

 sand acres in Norfolk. Sixty per cent, 

 of this land will re-forest itself without 

 expense for re-planting. All that will be 

 necessary will be to keep out fires, 

 cattle and trespassers. The rest will 

 require re-planting at a cost of approxi- 

 mately ten dollars per acre. In 1905 he 

 had planted Scotch pine in sand lands 

 in Durham. It was said that it would 

 be impossible to grow anything in such 

 soil, but it was now a thrifty plantation. 

 His experience led him to say that it was 

 possible to re-forest any lands we have in 

 Ontario, and that the ridges could be 

 readily re-forested. 



Mr. Thomas Southworth, President of 

 the Canadian Forestry Association and 

 formerly Director of Forestry in On- 

 tario, pointed out that it was now be- 

 coming seen that old Ontario had too 

 little forest for the best results in agri- 

 culture, for proper stream flow, naviga- 

 tion, water-power, etc. He had hoped 

 the establishment of a nursery at 

 Guelph, where forest trees could be 

 obtained free by the farmers, would 

 solve the difficulty, but the results had 

 been disappointing and this year only 

 400,000 trees were applied for. The 

 provincial government had begun to buy 

 up lands in the sand area in Norfolk. This 

 was a good move; but the method, from 

 the nature of things, was so slow, and the 

 area of such lands in Ontario so large, 

 that it would be many years before the 

 whole province could be gone over. He 

 suggested as a solution co-operation 

 between the municipalities and the 



